ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York has denied required air permit renewals to a bitcoin-mining power plant on the grounds that it was a threat to the state’s climate goals.
The permitting decision was another example of New York putting the brakes on a cryptocurrency bonanza that has alarmed environmentalists.
The state’s permitting decision involved Greenidge Generation, a power plant that had once been shut down, but was converted from to natural gas several years ago and began bitcoin mining in earnest in 2020.
A majority of the electricity produced by the plant is now used to run more than 15,000 computer servers.
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